The opening of shipping containers such as pasteboard boxes in stores and warehouses has always been a problem. With the development of supermarkets, discount stores and warehouse wholesale/retail outlets the problems have been magnified. In all of these various businesses, the shelves have to be constantly restocked.
Elongated dollies that carry between 40 and 50 boxes are rolled from the storeroom to the shelving area. The boxes are then cut around the top with a razor and the goods therein stocked on the shelves or the boxes cut in half and used as a shelf display.
Although a number of different types of machines have been developed to cut boxes of the type set forth above, stocking in retail stores is still primarily done by a stocking clerk who finds a place to sit the box and the clerk then cuts the top edge along one side, rotates the box 90.degree., cuts the next side, rotates the box another 90.degree., etc. until the top has been removed. This process takes between 15 and 20 seconds per box which equates into a considerable amount of time over an extended period.
The following references represent the closest prior art of which the inventor is aware: